National Football League Draft

The National Football League Draft, also called the Player Selection Meeting, is an annual event in which the National Football League (NFL) teams select eligible college football players. It serves as the league's most common source of player recruitment, the basic design of the draft is that each team is given a position in the drafting order in reverse order relative to its record in the previous year, which means that the last place team is positioned first. From this position, the team can either select a player or trade their position to another team for other draft positions, a player or players, or any combination thereof, the round is complete when each team has either selected a player or traded its draft position. Certain aspects of the draft, including team positioning and the number of rounds in the draft, have seen revisions since its first creation in 1936, but the fundamental methodology has remained the same. Currently the draft consists of seven rounds, the original rationale in creating the draft was to increase the competitive parity between the teams as the worst team would, ideally, have chosen the best player available.

In the early years of the draft, players were chosen based on hearsay, print media, or other rudimentary evidence of a player's ability; in the 1940s, some franchises began employing full-time scouts. The ensuing success of their corresponding teams eventually forced the other franchises to also hire scouts.

Colloquially, the name of the draft each year takes on the form of the NFL season in which players picked could begin playing, for example, the 2010 NFL draft was for the 2010 NFL season. However, the NFL-defined name of the process has changed since its inception.

The location of the draft has continually changed over the years to accommodate more fans, as the event has gained popularity, the draft's popularity now garners prime-time television coverage.

In the league's early years the draft was held in various cities with NFL franchises until the league settled on New York City starting in 1965, where it remained until 2015. The 2015 and 2016 NFL drafts were held in Chicago, while the 2017 version was held in Philadelphia. In recent years, the NFL draft has occurred in late April or early May.

As background, Stan Kostka had a huge college career as a U of M running back, leading the Minnesota Gophers to an undefeated season in 1934, every NFL team wanted to sign him. Since there was no draft back then, savvy Stan did the smart thing - he held out for the highest offer. While a free agent, Stan kept busy, even running for Mayor of Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota, although his political career did not take off, Stan's nine-month NFL holdout succeeded and he became the league's highest-paid player, signing a $5,000 contract with the NFL's team in Brooklyn, New York on August 25, 1935. As a response to the bidding war for Stan Kostka, the NFL instituted the draft in 1936.[1]

In late 1934, Art Rooney, owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, gave the right of usage of two players to the New York Giants because Rooney's team had no chance to participate in the post-season. After the owner of the Boston Redskins, George Preston Marshall, protested the transaction, the president of the NFL, Joe F. Carr, disallowed the Giants the ability to employ the players.[2] At a league meeting in December 1934, the NFL introduced a waiver rule to prevent such transactions. Any player released by a team during the season would be able to be claimed by other teams, the selection order to claim the player would be in inverse order to the teams' standings at the time.[2][3]

Throughout this time, Bert Bell, co-owner of the Philadelphia Eagles, felt his team's lack of competitiveness on the field made it difficult for the Eagles to sell tickets and to be profitable.[4] Compounding the Eagles' problems were players signed with teams that offered the most money,[5] or if the money being equal, players chose to sign with the most prestigious teams at the time,[6] who had established a winning tradition.[7] As a result, the NFL was dominated by the Chicago Bears, Green Bay Packers, Giants, and Redskins.[8][9] Bell's inability to sign a desired prospect, Stan Kostka, in 1935,[5][10][11] eventually led Bell to believe the only way for the NFL to have enduring success was for all teams to have an equal opportunity to sign eligible players.[8][12][13] At a league meeting on May 18, 1935, Bell proposed a draft be instituted to enhance the possibility of competitive parity on the field in order to ensure the financial viability of all franchises, his proposal was adopted unanimously that day,[14][15][16][17] although the first draft would not occur until the next off-season.[12][13]

The rules for the selection of the players in the first draft were, first, that a list of college seniors[18][19] would be assembled by each franchise and submitted into a pool, from this pool, each franchise would select, in inverse order to their team's record in the previous year, a player. With this selection, the franchise had the unilateral right to negotiate a contract with that player,[20][21] or the ability to trade that player to another team for a player, or players.[22] If, for any reason, the franchise was unsuccessful in negotiating a contract with the player and was unable to trade the player, the president of the NFL could attempt to arbitrate a settlement between the player and the franchise. If the president was unable to settle the dispute, then the player would be placed in the reserve list of the franchise and would be unavailable to play for any team in the NFL that year;[20][21] in the 1935 NFL season, the Eagles finished in last place at 2–9, thus securing themselves the first pick in the draft.[23][24][25]

The first NFL draft began at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Philadelphia on February 8, 1936.[12][13] Ninety names were written on a blackboard in the meeting room from which the teams would choose,[26][27] as no team had a scouting department, the list was created from either print media sources, visits to local colleges by team executives, or by recommendations to team executives.[26][27][28] The draft would last for nine rounds,[13][27][29] and it had no media coverage,[13] the first player ever selected in the draft was Jay Berwanger. Bell, prior to the draft, was not successfully able to negotiate a contract with Berwanger so Bell traded him to the Bears.[30][31][32]George Halas, owner of the Bears, was also unsuccessful in signing Berwanger.[33] Berwanger's decision to not play in the NFL was not unusual, as only twenty-four of the eighty-one players selected chose to play in the NFL that year,[34] the draft was recessed on the first day and it was continued and finished on the next day.[35]

This draft saw the emergence of Wellington Mara as a savant, as he had been subscribing to magazines and local and out-of-town papers to build up dossiers of college players across the country, which resulted in the Giants' drafting of Tuffy Leemans,[36] as a result of the institution of the draft, Tim Mara, owner of the Giants, reduced Ken Strong's salary offer to $3,200 from $6,000 a year for 1936 because Mara felt the draft would alter the salary structure of the NFL.[37] Generally, the franchises' exclusivity in negotiating with draft picks produced the immediate effect of, depending on sources, stopping the escalating salaries of new players,[13][18] or reducing their salaries.[38][39] Consequently, contemporary critics charged it was anti-labor.[40]

Art Rooney, owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, chose Byron "Whizzer" White in the first round of the 1938 draft despite White's known public declaration that he would not play professional football and would instead begin work on his Rhodes scholarship. White did, however, agree to play for the 1938 season after Rooney publicly gave him a guaranteed contract of $15,000, double what any other player had ever made in the NFL,[41] the size of the dollar amount brought condemnation from other owners because it altered the pay expectations of college draftees.[42] For the 1939 draft Wellington, for the first time, was put in charge of drafting players for the Giants, he submitted the list of players into the pool that the Giants—or other franchises—could choose players from. However, in the first round he selected a player, Walt Nielsen, not on the list of players that the Giants or any other franchise had submitted, with a grin Wellington stated, "'I didn't think I said I put every name on that list.'"[43]

An African-American had not played in the NFL since prior to the draft's institution; in 1939, Kenny Washington was, to no small extent, viewed as one of the greatest college football players of all time. After information was made available to at least one owner of a franchise, Washington was not drafted by any team for the 1940 NFL Draft.[44]

The draft would be eventually codified into the NFL Constitution,[45] although no information is available on when that originally occurred.

In 1980, Chet Simmons, president of the year-old ESPN, asked Pete Rozelle if the fledgling network could broadcast coverage of the draft live on ESPN. Although Rozelle did not believe it would be entertaining television, he agreed;[54][55] in 1988, the NFL moved the draft from weekdays to the weekend and ESPN's ratings of the coverage improved dramatically.[54][56]

In 2006, ESPN received competition when the NFL Network, which had launched in October 2003, began to produce its own draft coverage. ESPN pays the NFL a rights fee for the non-exclusive rights to draft coverage, a fee that is included in its overall contract to televise games (ESPN Sunday Night NFL from 1987 to 2005, and Monday Night Football from 2006 to the present).[57]

In 2010, the NFL moved to a three-day draft with the first day encompassing the first round beginning at 8:00 pm EDT, the second day encompassing the second and third rounds beginning at 7:00 pm EDT, and third day concluding the process with the final four rounds beginning at 11:00 am EDT Saturday.

Starting with the 2018 NFL Draft, the first two evenings will air on broadcast television, with Fox and NFL Network carrying a simulcast featuring personnel from both the NFL Network and Fox Sports.[58] ESPN continue to produce its own coverage of the draft.

Players who have been out of high school for at least three years are eligible for the NFL draft, the rules do not state that a player must attend college, but virtually all of the players selected in the NFL draft have played college football, usually in the United States but occasionally from Canadian universities as well. A few players are occasionally selected from other football leagues like the Arena Football League (AFL), the Canadian Football League (CFL), and the German Football League (GFL). A small handful of players have also been drafted from colleges who played other sports than football.

Rules only state that a player must be three years removed from high school graduation, regardless of what the prospective draftee did during that time. A year as a redshirt player in college counts toward eligibility even though the player was not allowed to participate in games during that year, therefore players who have completed their redshirt sophomore year can enter the NFL draft.

The selection order is based on each team's win-loss record in the previous season and whether the team reached the playoffs. Teams that did not reach the playoffs the previous season are ranked in reverse order of their records (thus the team with the fewest wins is awarded the first selection). Ties between teams with identical records are determined by the following tiebreakers (in order):[59]

Strength of schedule, which is the combined win-loss record for all 16 of the team's opponents in the previous season (ties count as a half win and half loss). The team with the lower strength of schedule (i.e. their opponents compiled fewer wins) is granted the earlier pick in round one.

Record in common games against division opponents (if the teams are in the same division).

Record in common games against conference opponents (if the teams are in the same conference).

Teams that reached the playoffs the previous season are then slotted in the order in which they were eliminated as indicated in the table below. Within each tier, the slotting is determined as above (i.e. worst record picks first and the same tiebreakers apply).[59]

Status

Draft picks

Non-playoff teams

1–20

Eliminated in Wild Card round

21–24

Eliminated in Divisional round

25–28

Conference runners-up

29–30

Super Bowl runner-up

31

Super Bowl champion

32

Once the order for the first round is determined as described above, the selection order remains the same for subsequent rounds with the exception of teams with identical records within their tier, these tied teams "cycle" picks in each subsequent round. For example, in the 2014 draft, the Jacksonville Jaguars, Cleveland Browns, Oakland Raiders, Atlanta Falcons, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers all finished 4–12, and selected in that order in the first round (based on the tiebreakers described above). In the second round, Jacksonville cycled to the back of the line with the order becoming Cleveland, Oakland, Atlanta, Tampa Bay, and Jacksonville, that cycling continued in each round.[citation needed]

An exception to this ordering strategy occurs when new "expansion teams" are added to the league. An expansion team is automatically granted the first selection. If there are two or more expansion teams added, a coin toss (for two expansion teams) or a drawing of lots (for three expansion teams or more) determines which team is awarded the first selection in the regular draft, the loser of the coin toss (or the winner of the drawing of lots in the event there are three or more expansion teams) is awarded the first selection in the expansion draft.[60]

The 2010 NFL draft was the first draft to take place over three days, its first round was on Thursday, April 22 at 7:30 p.m. ET, with the second and third rounds on Friday, April 23 at 6 p.m. ET, followed by the remaining rounds on Saturday, April 24 at 10 a.m. ET.[61]

The first overall pick generally gets the richest contract, but other contracts rely on a number of variables. While they generally are based on the previous year's second overall pick, third overall, etc., each player's position also is taken into account. Quarterbacks, for example, usually command more money than defensive linemen, which can skew those dollar figures slightly.[citation needed]

Each team has its representatives attend the draft, during the draft, one team is always "on the clock." In Round 1, teams have 10 minutes to make their choice (previously 15)[time needed]. The decision time drops to 7 minutes (previously 10) in the second round and 5 minutes in Rounds 3–6; in round 7, and for compensatory picks, teams only have 4 minutes to make their choice. If a team does not make a decision within its allotted time, the team still can submit its selection at any time after its time is up, but the next team can pick before it, thus possibly 'stealing' a player the team with the earlier pick may have been considering, this occurred in the 2003 draft, when the Minnesota Vikings, with the 7th overall pick, were late with their selection. The Jacksonville Jaguars drafted quarterback Byron Leftwich and the Carolina Panthers drafted offensive tackle Jordan Gross before the Vikings were able to submit their selection of defensive tackle Kevin Williams. This also happened in 2011; as the Baltimore Ravens were negotiating a trade with the Chicago Bears, their time expired and allowed the Kansas City Chiefs to pick ahead of Baltimore, who was unable to finalize the trade with Chicago.

Teams may negotiate with one another both before and during the draft for the right to pick an additional player in a given round, for example, a team may include draft picks in future drafts in order to acquire a player during a trading period. Teams may also make negotiations during the draft relinquishing the right to pick in a given round for the right to have an additional pick in a later round, thus teams may have no picks or multiple picks in a given round.

In addition to the 32 selections in each of the seven rounds, a total of 32 compensatory picks are awarded to teams based on the players they lost and gained in free agency. Using a proprietary formula, the league defines a class of unrestricted free agents as "compensatory free agents ("CFA"). Teams that have lost more or better compensatory free agents than they signed in the previous year receive picks somewhere in the third through seventh rounds.[62] Teams that gain and lose the same number of players but lose higher-valued players also can be awarded a pick, but only in the seventh round, after the others. Compensatory picks are awarded each year at the NFL annual meeting which is held at the end of March; typically, about three or four weeks before the draft. Compensatory picks can be traded beginning with the 2017 NFL draft,[63] the placement of the picks is determined by a proprietary formula based on the player's salary, playing time, and postseason honors with his new team, with salary being the primary factor. So, for example, a team that lost a linebacker who signed for $2.5 million per year in free agency might get a sixth-round compensatory pick, while a team that lost a wide receiver who signed for $5 million per year might receive a fourth-round pick. However, the NFL has never revealed the exact formula used to determine allotment of compensatory picks, though observers from outside the NFL have been able to reverse engineer it to some degree of certainty.[64]

All compensatory picks are awarded at the ends of Rounds 3 through 7. If fewer than 32 such picks are awarded, the remaining picks are awarded after the final Round 7 compensatory picks in the order in which teams would pick in a hypothetical eighth round of the draft; these picks are known as "supplemental compensatory selections". More than 32 compensatory picks have been awarded only on one occasion: the 2016 NFL Draft, where 33 picks were awarded; the additional pick was awarded (under an agreement between the NFL Management Council and the NFLPA) to the Buffalo Bills for losing Da'Norris Searcy to free agency and signing Charles Clay as a transition tagged player from the Miami Dolphins, who had not qualified as a CFA.[65][66]

In 2018, the NFL released the compensatory picks on February 23 (nineteen days after the Super Bowl).

The NFL allows each team a certain amount of money from its salary cap[67] to sign its drafted rookies for their first season, that amount is based on an undisclosed formula that assigns a certain value to each pick in the draft; thus, having more picks, or earlier picks, will increase the allotment. In 2008 the highest allotment was about $8.22 million for the Kansas City Chiefs, who had 12 picks, including two first-rounders, while the lowest was the $1.79 million for the Cleveland Browns who had only five picks, and none in the first three rounds.[68] The exact mechanism for the rookie salary cap is set out in the NFL's collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA). (Those numbers represent the cap hits that each rookie's salary may contribute, not the total amount of money paid out.)

The drafted players are paid salaries commensurate with the position in which they were drafted. High first-round picks get paid the most, and low-round picks get paid the least. There is a de facto pay scale for drafted rookies, after the draft, non-drafted rookies may sign a contract with any team in the league. These rookie free-agents are not usually paid as well as drafted players, nearly all of them signing for the predetermined rookie minimum and a small signing bonus.

Two other facets of the rookie salary cap impact the makeup of rosters. First, the base salaries of rookie free agents do not count towards the rookie salary cap, though certain bonuses do. Second, if a rookie is traded, his cap allotment remains with the team that originally drafted him, which make trades involving rookie players relatively rare. (This rule does not apply, however, to rookies that are waived by the teams that drafted them.)

Teams can also agree to a contract with a draft-eligible player before the draft itself starts, they can only do this if they have the first overall pick, as by agreeing to terms with a player the team has already "selected" which player they will draft. A recent example of this would be quarterback Matthew Stafford and the Detroit Lions in the 2009 NFL Draft, the Lions, with the first overall selection in the draft, agreed to a 6-year, $78 million deal with $41.7 million guaranteed with Stafford a day before the draft officially started. By agreeing to the deal, Stafford had already been chosen as the first overall pick in the draft.

Teams vary greatly in their selection methodologies. Owners, general managers, coaches, and others may or may not participate, for the 1983 draft, for example, the Pittsburgh Steelers' head coach Chuck Noll had what team executive Art Rooney, Jr. later described as "the final say" over picks, even over his father, team owner Art Rooney. New England Patriots head coach Ron Meyer, by contrast, later stated that the team, led by owner Billy Sullivan, excluded the coaching staff from any personnel-related decisions, even prohibiting him from reading scouting reports. Had he had the decision-making authority, Meyer said, he would not have chosen Tony Eason in the first round of the 1983 draft.[69]

College football players who are considering entering the NFL draft but who still have eligibility to play football can request an expert opinion from the NFL-created Draft Advisory Board, the Board, composed of scouting experts and team executives, makes a prediction as to the likely round in which a player would be drafted. This information, which has proven to be fairly accurate, can help college players determine whether to enter the draft or to continue playing and improving at the college level. There are also many famous reporting scouts, such as Mel Kiper Jr.

The NFL Scouting Combine is a six-day assessment of skills occurring every year in late February or early March in Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana. College football players perform physical and mental tests in front of NFL coaches, general managers, and scouts, with increasing interest in the NFL draft, the scouting combine has grown in scope and significance, allowing personnel directors to evaluate upcoming prospects in a standardized setting. Its origins have evolved from the National, BLESTO, and Quadra Scouting services in 1977 to the media frenzy it has become today. Athletes attend by invitation only. Implications of one's performance during the Combine can affect perception, draft status, salary, and ultimately his career, the draft has popularized the term "Workout Warrior" (sometimes known as a "Workout Wonder"), describing an athlete who, based on superior measurables such as size, speed, and strength, has increased his "draft stock" despite having a possibly average or subpar college career.[70][71][72]

Each university has a Pro Day, during which the NCAA allows NFL scouts to visit the school and watch players participate in NFL Combine events together. (Some smaller universities join with nearby schools.) Essentially job fairs for prospective NFL players,[73] Pro Days are held under the belief that players feel more comfortable at their own campus than they do at the Combine, which in turn leads to better performances. College teams which produce a large quantity of NFL prospects generally generate huge interest from scouts and coaches at their Pro Days.

Each NFL team is allowed to transport a maximum of 30 draft-eligible players for the purposes of physical examinations, interviews, and written tests.[74] If a player attends a school or grew up in the same "metropolitan area" as the team that is inviting the player, that visit is not counted towards the 30-player limit.[75]

Since 1977, the NFL has also held a supplemental draft to accommodate players who did not enter the regular draft. Players generally enter the supplementary draft because they missed the filing deadline for the NFL draft or because issues developed which affected their eligibility (such as academic or disciplinary matters), the supplemental draft is scheduled to occur at some point after the regular draft and before the start of the next season. In 1984 the NFL held an additional draft for players who were under contract with either USFL or CFL teams.

Draft order is determined by a weighted system that is divided into three groupings. First come the teams that had six or fewer wins last season, followed by non-playoff teams that had more than six wins, followed by the 12 playoff teams; in the supplemental draft, a team is not required to use any picks. Instead, if a team wants a player in the supplemental draft, they submit a "bid" to the Commissioner with the round they would pick that player. If no other team places a bid on that player at an earlier spot, the team is awarded the player and has to give up an equivalent pick in the following year's draft.[82] (For example, FS Paul Oliver was taken by the San Diego Chargers in the fourth round of the supplemental draft in 2007; thus, in the 2008 NFL draft, the Chargers forfeited a fourth-round pick.)

The 1985 supplemental draft was particularly controversial. Quarterback Bernie Kosar who had led the University of Miami to its first National Championship in 1984 was earning his academic degree as a junior. Rather than finish his eligibility at Miami he wanted to turn pro, at this time college players had to wait for their class unless they themselves graduated early.

A plan was devised by football agent AJ Faigin[83] that was to get him to Kosar's preferred team, the Cleveland Browns. Faigin was representing former University of Miami QB Jim Kelly, then in the USFL, but whose NFL rights were held by the Buffalo Bills, the USFL was in its last days and Kelly would soon be available to the Bills. Faigin's first step was to ask Bill Polian, the GM of Buffalo, if he would be willing to trade the number one supplemental pick (worth next to nothing at that time) to Cleveland. Polian agreed and Faigin told the Cleveland Browns a trade was available, he next notified Kosar's father he should not formally submit his son's application for the standard NFL draft that was weeks away and declare only afterward; which would put him into the supplemental draft.

The result of Kosar's withdrawal resulted in rare, open warfare among NFL teams played out in the newspapers with threats of lawsuits between them, notably the Minnesota Vikings and New York Giants, who had expressed interest in choosing him in that season's regular draft, but as no rules were broken the Giants and eventually Minnesota had to back down. Following that season, the NFL instituted the current semi-random supplemental draft order.

The strategy devised by A.J. Faigin, to not declare for the NFL until after the regular draft, was subsequently used by other top players for various reasons; in some cases, it was because they did not want to play for the team that would have drafted them in the regular draft. For example, Brian Bosworth did not declare because he did not want to play for the Indianapolis Colts or the Buffalo Bills, the teams who drafted second and third that year. The Colts had offered him a 4-year, $2.2 million deal before the draft.[84] The Seattle Seahawks won the right to draft first in the supplemental draft, and later signed him to a 10-year, $11 million contract,[85] at the time that was the largest rookie contract in NFL history.

As of the 1990 season, only players who had graduated or exhausted their college eligibility were made available for the supplemental draft, since 1993, only players who had planned to attend college but for various reasons could not, have been included in the supplemental draft.

^The three most prestigious teams at the time were the Bears, Giants, and the Packers. Maule, 1964, p. 15.

^The players had an auxiliary financial incentive to play with the best teams because 60% of the profit for the NFL championship game went to the players on the winning team and 40% went to the players on the losing team. Dunscomb, George (December 12, 1936). "$6,000 for a Touchdown: George Halas of the Chicago Bears Tells of Costs of Running a Pro Team". Saturday Evening Post. pp. 16, 40, 42.|access-date= requires |url= (help)

Gottehrer, Barry (1963), The Giants of New York. New York:G.P. Putnam's Sons

Hession, Joseph (1987). The Rams: Five Decades of Football. San Francisco: Foghorn Press.

Knight, Jonathan (2006). "Bernie Comes Home" in Sundays in the Pound: The Heroics and Heartbreak of the 1985–89 Cleveland Browns. Kent, Ohio: The Kent State University Press ISBN978-0-87338-866-5 pp. 15–25.

Maule, Tex (1964). The Game; The Official Picture History of the National Football League. New York: Random House

1.
National Football League
–
The National Football League is a professional American football league consisting of 32 teams, divided equally between the National Football Conference and the American Football Conference. The NFL is one of the four professional sports leagues in North America. The NFLs 17-week regular season runs from the week after Labor Day to the week after Christmas, with each team playing 16 games, the NFL was formed in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association before renaming itself the National Football League for the 1922 season. The NFL agreed to merge with the American Football League in 1966, and the first Super Bowl was held at the end of that season, the merger was completed in 1970. Today, the NFL has the highest average attendance of any sports league in the world and is the most popular sports league in the United States. S. The NFLs executive officer is the commissioner, who has authority in governing the league. The team with the most NFL championships is the Green Bay Packers with thirteen, the current NFL champions are the New England Patriots, who defeated the Atlanta Falcons 34–28 in Super Bowl LI. Another meeting held on September 17,1920 resulted in the renaming of the league to the American Professional Football Association, the league hired Jim Thorpe as its first president, and consisted of 14 teams. Only two of these teams, the Decatur Staleys and the Chicago Cardinals, remain, the first event occurred on September 26,1920 when the Rock Island Independents defeated the non-league St. Paul Ideals 48–0 at Douglas Park. On October 3,1920, the first full week of league play occurred, the following season resulted in the Chicago Staleys controversially winning the title over the Buffalo All-Americans. In 1922, the APFA changed its name to the National Football League, in 1932, the season ended with the Chicago Bears and the Portsmouth Spartans tied for first in the league standings. This method had used since the leagues creation in 1920. The league quickly determined that a game between Chicago and Portsmouth was needed to decide the leagues champion. Playing with altered rules to accommodate the playing field, the Bears won the game 9–0. Fan interest in the de facto championship game led the NFL, beginning in 1933, the 1934 season also marked the first of 12 seasons in which African Americans were absent from the league. The de facto ban was rescinded in 1946, following public pressure, the NFL was always the foremost professional football league in the United States, it nevertheless faced a large number of rival professional leagues through the 1930s and 1940s. Rival leagues included at least three separate American Football Leagues and the All-America Football Conference, on top of regional leagues of varying caliber. Three NFL teams trace their histories to these leagues, including the Los Angeles Rams

2.
College football
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It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. No minor league farm organizations exist in American football and it is in college football where a players performance directly impacts his chances of playing professional football. The best collegiate players will declare for the professional draft after 3 to 4 years of collegiate competition. Those not selected can still attempt to land an NFL roster spot as a free agent. Even after the emergence of the professional National Football League, college football remained extremely popular throughout the U. S, in many cases, college stadiums employ bench-style seating, as opposed to individual seats with backs and arm rests. This allows them to more fans in a given amount of space than the typical professional stadium. College athletes, unlike players in the NFL, are not permitted by the NCAA to be paid salaries, colleges are only allowed to provide non-monetary compensation such as athletic scholarships that provide for tuition, housing, and books. Modern North American football has its origins in various games, all known as football, by the 1840s, students at Rugby School were playing a game in which players were able to pick up the ball and run with it, a sport later known as Rugby football. The game was taken to Canada by British soldiers stationed there and was soon being played at Canadian colleges, the first documented gridiron football match was a game played at University College, a college of the University of Toronto, November 9,1861. One of the participants in the game involving University of Toronto students was William Mulock, a football club was formed at the university soon afterward, although its rules of play at this stage are unclear. In 1864, at Trinity College, also a college of the University of Toronto, F. Barlow Cumberland, modern Canadian football is widely regarded as having originated with a game played in Montreal, in 1865, when British Army officers played local civilians. The game gradually gained a following, and the Montreal Football Club was formed in 1868, early games appear to have had much in common with the traditional mob football played in England. The games remained largely unorganized until the 19th century, when games of football began to be played on college campuses. Each school played its own variety of football, Princeton University students played a game called ballown as early as 1820. A Harvard tradition known as Bloody Monday began in 1827, which consisted of a mass ballgame between the freshman and sophomore classes, in 1860, both the town police and the college authorities agreed the Bloody Monday had to go. The Harvard students responded by going into mourning for a figure called Football Fightum. The authorities held firm and it was a dozen years before football was again played at Harvard. Dartmouth played its own version called Old division football, the rules of which were first published in 1871, all of these games, and others, shared certain commonalities

3.
Scout (sport)
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Advance scouts watch the teams that their teams are going to play in order to help determine strategy. Many scouts are former coaches or retired players, while others have made a career just of being scouts, Major League scouts and professional scouts typically track active players under contract to other teams for potential acquisition. They also may support advance scouts or evaluate competing minor league organizations, per their designation, the former follow players in MLB, while pro scouts work minor league and independent league baseball. Amateur scouts evaluate high school and college players and prepare their MLB teams for the June amateur draft. To ensure that players are seen by multiple evaluators, amateur scouts are usually divided into area scouts, regional cross-checkers, international scouts cover players not from the United States, Puerto Rico and other U. S. territories, or Canada. Modern day scouts are becoming more and more reliant on computer programs to aid, many professional sport clubs now use computers to organize their collected information and data. Most sports still depend on human management to decide which players their organization will draft or sign, steve Belichick — late assistant coach and scout for the United States Naval Academy, author of Football Scouting Methods, and father of the NFL coach. Dick Haley — architect of 1970s Pittsburgh Steelers dynasty Bill Nunn — legendary scout for Pittsburgh Steelers Will Robinson- also scouted for the NFLs Detroit Lions. Kevin Mackey, Indiana Pacers Piet de Visser Geoff Twentyman Les Kershaw Jack Hixon Marco Zunino Liam Brady Pierluigi Casiraghi Jorge Alvial Håkan Andersson Garnet Bailey Jordan, occasional Glory, The History of the Philadelphia Phillies. ISBN 0-7864-1260-7 Robbins, Mike, Ninety Feet from Fame, Close Calls With Baseball Immortality, crowning the Kansas City Royals, Remembering the 1985 World Series Champs. Prophet of the Sandlots, Journeys with a Major League Scout

4.
2010 NFL Draft
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The 2010 NFL Draft was the 75th annual meeting of National Football League franchises to select newly eligible football players. Unlike previous years, the 2010 draft took place three days, at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, New York, with the first round on Thursday, April 22,2010. The second and third took place on Friday, April 23 starting at 6,00 pm EDT, while the final four rounds were held on Saturday, April 24. Television coverage was provided by both NFL Network and ESPN, the St. Louis Rams, as the team with the worst record during the 2009 season, selected quarterback Sam Bradford with the first pick. Three of the top four picks were members of the Oklahoma Sooners football team, the prime time broadcast of the first round was watched by 7.29 million viewers making it the most viewed first round ever and making ESPN the second most watched network of the night. Of the 255 players drafted 216 were among the 327 players who participated in the 2010 NFL Scouting Combine and this matches the average percentage of combine participants among draftees over the past ten years. An additional 39 players who did not attend the combine were selected, there was wide speculation that the 2010 NFL Draft would have a very large number of early entrants because of a possible rookie pay scale to be imposed starting with the 2011 NFL Draft. Eligible underclassmen projected as top NFL prospects risked losing millions of contractually-guaranteed dollars if they did not declare for the draft the year before a new CBA could be reached, the early entry deadline was January 15. After the early entry deadline had passed, it was confirmed that the 2010 NFL Draft would have fifty-three non-seniors, the drafts first round, in which teams were allowed ten minutes to make each selection, consumed three hours and 28 minutes. The second round lasted two hours and 25 minutes, after the second round, teams were allotted five minutes per pick. The third round took one hour and 41 minutes, rounds 4 through 7 each lasted less than two hours. For the second time in history, the first two players selected were named Offensive and Defensive Rookies of the Year, respectively. The new format took into account the seeding of playoff teams, the two major changes from previous years were, Teams that make the playoffs pick after teams that do not. Teams that advance further in the playoffs pick later, in 2008, the Chargers, who went 8–8 in the regular season, defeated the 12–4 Indianapolis Colts in an AFC Wild Card game. The new order assigns picks for each round as indicated in the table below, with the exception of the changes noted above, the order will generally follow that used in previous years. Three coin tosses were necessary to establish the final order, Jacksonville, Tennessee, and Atlanta won their flips over Denver, Carolina. In the explanations below, denotes trades that took place during the draft, Round one Round two Round three Round four Round five Round six Round seven Two players were selected in the 2010 Supplemental Draft. Archived from the original on May 11,2011, archived from the original on May 21,2011

5.
2010 NFL season
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The 2010 NFL season was the 91st regular season of the National Football League. Tom Brady, quarterback of the New England Patriots, was named MVP for the 2010 season, in Super Bowl XLV, the Leagues championship game played at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, the Green Bay Packers defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 31–25 to win their fourth Super Bowl. Spoiling the Steelers chance for a 7th title, one week later, the Seahawks dethroned the defending champion New Orleans Saints in the Wild Card round, to become the first ever sub.500 playoff team to win a postseason game. In 2008, the New England Patriots and New York Jets each had to make trips to all four of the aforementioned West Coast teams. Specifically, those traveling to Oakland will now also play at Denver. For teams scheduled to play the NFC West, those traveling to San Francisco will also go to Arizona, for the 2010 season, the intraconference and interconference matchups are, The entire 2010 regular-season schedule was unveiled at 7,00 pm EDT on Tuesday, April 20. Additionally, schedule release shows aired on both the NFL Network and as a SportsCenter special on ESPN2. The Pro Football Hall of Fame Game was held on Sunday, August 8,2010 at 8,00 pm EDT on NBC, with the Dallas Cowboys defeating the Cincinnati Bengals, 16–7 at Fawcett Stadium in Canton, Ohio. The remainder of the preseason game matchups were announced March 31,2010, highlights, among others, include the New York Giants and New York Jets facing off in the first-ever game at New Meadowlands Stadium on ESPN. The preseason game in the Bills Toronto Series featured the host Bills defeating the Indianapolis Colts in Toronto on Thursday, exact dates and times for most games were announced in April, shortly after the regular season games were announced. On March 15,2010, the NFL announced that both the New York Giants and New York Jets will play at home during the weekend to open New Meadowlands Stadium. The Giants played on Sunday with a 1 pm EDT kickoff against the Carolina Panthers, the game started at 9,15 pm Kansas City time. While the Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints had both started the year before 13–0, on October 10, the Kansas City Chiefs became the last team to lose, losing to the Colts 19–9. It would mark the first time that no NFL team reached 4–0 since 1970, when the Detroit Lions, Denver Broncos, the 2010 season featured one International Series game, played at Wembley Stadium in London. The teams for this game were confirmed on January 15,2010, with the San Francisco 49ers playing host to the Denver Broncos on October 31,2010, the 49ers won 24–16, scoring 21 points in the 4th quarter. CBS televised this game on a basis, as the Broncos were the visiting team. On the same day that the Broncos and 49ers played in London and this game was televised opposite Game Four of the World Series on Fox, a practice the league had traditionally avoided. The Saints won this game 20–10, the Thanksgiving games took place on Thursday, November 25,2010, with the Detroit Lions falling to the visiting New England Patriots, 45–24

6.
New York City
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The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange

7.
2015 NFL Draft
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The 2015 NFL Draft was the 80th annual meeting of National Football League franchises to select newly eligible football players. It took place in Chicago at the Auditorium Theatre and in Grant Park, the previous fifty NFL drafts had been held in New York City. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers held the right to select first because they had the leagues worst record in the previous season, the Arizona Cardinals made the final pick in the draft, commonly called Mr. Irrelevant. One of the major storylines approaching the NFL draft was the competition between the previous two Heisman Trophy winners, Jameis Winston winning the award in 2013 and Marcus Mariota in 2014, both were considered excellent prospects and had the potential to become the first overall draft selection. Mariota was considered an athlete, the fastest quarterback in the draft. However, Mariota ran an offense at Oregon which typically had not transitioned well from college to the NFL. Although neither was considered a safe pick, the two quarterbacks were selected first and second overall. This is only the time in NFL history that this has occurred. It was also the first time that two Heisman trophy winners were selected with the first two overall picks, shortly before the draft, the NFL shortened the amount of time for certain selections to be made. Seventy-four underclassmen announced their intention to forego their remaining NCAA eligibility, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Tennessee Titans each finished 2014 with league-worst 2–14 records. The Buccaneers were awarded the first pick in round one due to having a strength of schedule. The selection order for subsequent rounds follows the order of the first round, in addition to the seven picks each team is given, the league allocated thirty-two supplemental picks at the ends of round 3 through 7, for a total of 256 picks. The supplemental picks are awarded to teams who had net losses of free agent talent from the previous year, a supplemental draft was held on July 9,2015. For each player selected in the draft, the team forfeits its pick in that round in the draft of the following season. Seven players were available, but only one was selected, in the explanations below, indicates trades completed prior to the start of the draft, while denotes trades that took place during the 2015 draft. Round one Round two Round three Round four Round five Round six Round seven General references Trade references Official Site 2015 NFL draft at ESPN

8.
Chicago
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Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the third-most populous city in the United States. With over 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the state of Illinois, and it is the county seat of Cook County. In 2012, Chicago was listed as a global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Chicago has the third-largest gross metropolitan product in the United States—about $640 billion according to 2015 estimates, the city has one of the worlds largest and most diversified economies with no single industry employing more than 14% of the workforce. In 2016, Chicago hosted over 54 million domestic and international visitors, landmarks in the city include Millennium Park, Navy Pier, the Magnificent Mile, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum Campus, the Willis Tower, Museum of Science and Industry, and Lincoln Park Zoo. Chicagos culture includes the arts, novels, film, theater, especially improvisational comedy. Chicago also has sports teams in each of the major professional leagues. The city has many nicknames, the best-known being the Windy City, the name Chicago is derived from a French rendering of the Native American word shikaakwa, known to botanists as Allium tricoccum, from the Miami-Illinois language. The first known reference to the site of the current city of Chicago as Checagou was by Robert de LaSalle around 1679 in a memoir, henri Joutel, in his journal of 1688, noted that the wild garlic, called chicagoua, grew abundantly in the area. In the mid-18th century, the area was inhabited by a Native American tribe known as the Potawatomi, the first known non-indigenous permanent settler in Chicago was Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. Du Sable was of African and French descent and arrived in the 1780s and he is commonly known as the Founder of Chicago. In 1803, the United States Army built Fort Dearborn, which was destroyed in 1812 in the Battle of Fort Dearborn, the Ottawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi tribes had ceded additional land to the United States in the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis. The Potawatomi were forcibly removed from their land after the Treaty of Chicago in 1833, on August 12,1833, the Town of Chicago was organized with a population of about 200. Within seven years it grew to more than 4,000 people, on June 15,1835, the first public land sales began with Edmund Dick Taylor as U. S. The City of Chicago was incorporated on Saturday, March 4,1837, as the site of the Chicago Portage, the city became an important transportation hub between the eastern and western United States. Chicagos first railway, Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, and the Illinois, the canal allowed steamboats and sailing ships on the Great Lakes to connect to the Mississippi River. A flourishing economy brought residents from rural communities and immigrants from abroad, manufacturing and retail and finance sectors became dominant, influencing the American economy. The Chicago Board of Trade listed the first ever standardized exchange traded forward contracts and these issues also helped propel another Illinoisan, Abraham Lincoln, to the national stage

9.
Philadelphia
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In 1682, William Penn, an English Quaker, founded the city to serve as capital of the Pennsylvania Colony. Philadelphia was one of the capitals in the Revolutionary War. In the 19th century, Philadelphia became an industrial center. It became a destination for African-Americans in the Great Migration. The areas many universities and colleges make Philadelphia a top international study destination, as the city has evolved into an educational, with a gross domestic product of $388 billion, Philadelphia ranks ninth among world cities and fourth in the nation. Philadelphia is the center of activity in Pennsylvania and is home to seven Fortune 1000 companies. The Philadelphia skyline is growing, with a market of almost 81,900 commercial properties in 2016 including several prominent skyscrapers. The city is known for its arts, culture, and rich history, Philadelphia has more outdoor sculptures and murals than any other American city. Fairmount Park, when combined with the adjacent Wissahickon Valley Park in the watershed, is one of the largest contiguous urban park areas in the United States. The 67 National Historic Landmarks in the city helped account for the $10 billion generated by tourism, Philadelphia is the only World Heritage City in the United States. Before Europeans arrived, the Philadelphia area was home to the Lenape Indians in the village of Shackamaxon, the Lenape are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government. They are also called Delaware Indians and their territory was along the Delaware River watershed, western Long Island. Most Lenape were pushed out of their Delaware homeland during the 18th century by expanding European colonies, Lenape communities were weakened by newly introduced diseases, mainly smallpox, and violent conflict with Europeans. Iroquois people occasionally fought the Lenape, surviving Lenape moved west into the upper Ohio River basin. The American Revolutionary War and United States independence pushed them further west, in the 1860s, the United States government sent most Lenape remaining in the eastern United States to the Indian Territory under the Indian removal policy. In the 21st century, most Lenape now reside in the US state of Oklahoma, with communities living also in Wisconsin, Ontario. The Dutch considered the entire Delaware River valley to be part of their New Netherland colony, in 1638, Swedish settlers led by renegade Dutch established the colony of New Sweden at Fort Christina and quickly spread out in the valley. In 1644, New Sweden supported the Susquehannocks in their defeat of the English colony of Maryland

10.
Roger Goodell
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Roger Stokoe Goodell is an American businessman who is currently the Commissioner of the National Football League. Goodell was chosen to succeed the retiring Paul Tagliabue on August 8,2006 and he was chosen over four finalists for the position, winning a close vote on the fifth ballot before being unanimously approved by acclamation of the owners. He officially began his tenure on September 1,2006, just prior to the beginning of the 2006 NFL season, commentators have described him as the most powerful man in sports. Goodell was born in Jamestown, New York on February 19,1959, to United States Senator Charles Ellsworth Goodell of New York, and Jean Goodell of Buffalo, New York. He graduated from Bronxville High School where, as a star in football, basketball. Injuries kept him from playing college football, Goodell is a 1981 graduate of Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, Pennsylvania with a degree in economics. In 1983, he joined the New York Jets as an intern, as the NFLs COO, Goodell took responsibility for the leagues football operations and officiating, as well as supervised league business functions. He headed NFL Ventures, which oversees the business units, including media properties, marketing and sales, stadium development. Goodell was heavily involved in the negotiation of the collective bargaining agreement with the NFLPA and he also played an extensive role in league expansion, realignment, and stadium development, including the launch of the NFL Network and securing new television agreements. Upon Tagliabues retirement Goodell was one of the candidates in contention for the role, in the second and third ballots, Goodell and Gregg Levy were the only candidates to receive votes. The Oakland Raiders abstained from the voting in each round, Goodell was chosen on August 8,2006 to succeed Tagliabue and assumed office on September 1, the date Tagliabue had set to step down. Goodell believes his primary responsibility as commissioner is protecting the integrity of the game and making it safer—protecting the shield, however, some of his actions in this regard have been met with criticism. The spring league NFL Europe, founded in 1995 and since 2004 with five of six teams based in Germany, was shut down by Goodell after the 2007 season, the NFL International Series began in October 2007 with regular season games in London. In April 2007, following a year of significant scandal surrounding some NFL players actions off the field, the league indicated to Wilson that his more severe penalty was because they held people in authority in higher regard than people on the field. Goodell has also imposed suspensions on the players for conduct, In addition to suspensions. Two national political advocacy groups, CREDO and UltraViolet have submitted a petition with over 100,000 signatures calling on Goodell and this came after Ray Rice was suspended for two games when he was accused of assaulting his then fiancée, Janay Palmer, who is now his wife. In the aftermath, Belichick was fined the maximum of $500,000. The Patriots themselves were fined $250,000 and had to forfeit a first round pick in the 2008 NFL Draft, Goodell came down hard on the Patriots because he felt Belichicks authority over football operations was such that his decisions were properly attributed to the Patriots as well

11.
Minnesota Golden Gophers
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The Minnesota Golden Gophers are the college sports team of the University of Minnesota. The university fields both mens and womens teams in basketball, cross country, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, swimming, tennis, mens-specific sports include baseball, football, and wrestling. Womens-specific sports include rowing, soccer, softball, and volleyball, the Gophers womens ice hockey team is a six-time NCAA champion and seven-time national champion. In womens ice hockey, the Gophers belong to the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, in all other sports, they belong to the Big Ten Conference. Most of the facilities that the use for training and competitive play are located on the East Bank of the Minneapolis campus. There are arenas for mens and womens basketball as well as ice hockey, the Gopher football team began playing at TCF Bank Stadium in September 2009. The womens soccer team plays on the St. Paul campus in Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium, the Cheerleaders and the Dance Team are also part of the universitys athletic department, they are present at events for basketball, ice hockey, football, and volleyball. During the 2006–2007 academic year, the Golden Gophers wrestling team won the NCAA national championship, the Golden Gophers also won conference championships in mens ice hockey, mens golf, womens rowing, mens swimming and diving, and womens indoor track and field. The University Mascot is derived from a nickname for the state of Minnesota, the original design was based on the thirteen-lined ground squirrel. The state nickname derives from a cartoon by R. O. Sweeny. The cartoon depicted state legislators as gophers dragging the state in the wrong direction, the nickname was associated with the university as early as the publication of the first yearbook in 1888, which was titled The Gopher. Other early yearbooks included depictions of gophers as well, and the University of Minnesota football coach Clarence Spears officially named the team the Gophers in 1926. After the radio announcer Halsey Hall began referring to the team as the Golden Gophers due to the color of their uniforms, school songs for the university include Minnesota Rouser, Minnesota March, Go Gopher Victory, Our Minnesota, Minnesota Fight, Hail. Minnesota, and the Battle Hymn of the Republic, the Minnesota Gophers have won 19 NCAA national championships. The NCAA itself does not award a championship for Division I-A football, the NCAA began awarding national championships for mens basketball in 1939, previous champions were retroactively named by the Helms Athletic Foundation and the Premo-Porretta Power Poll. The NCAA began awarding national championships for mens ice hockey in 1948, previous championships were awarded by the Amateur Athletic Union, the NCAA began awarding national championships for womens ice hockey in 2001, previous championships were awarded by the American Womens College Hockey Alliance. Yost, it is painted with the victories of the two teams, floyd of Rosedale – Since 1935 the Gophers and the Iowa Hawkeyes have fought to win this bronze pig. The Gophers won the 2010 and 2011 match up for the pig, Paul Bunyans Axe – Minnesota and the Wisconsin Badgers have passed this trophy back and forth since 1948, although it records the two teams encounters since 1890

12.
Art Rooney
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Arthur Joseph Rooney Sr. often referred to as The Chief, was the founding owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, an American football franchise in the National Football League, from 1933 until his death. Rooney is a member of the NFL Hall of Fame, was an Olympic qualifying boxer and he was the first president of the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1933 to 1974, and the first chairman of the team from 1933 to 1988. Rooneys great-grandparents, James and Mary Rooney, were Irish Catholics who emigrated from Newry in County Down, while living in Montreal, the Rooneys had a son, Arthur. James and Mary later moved to Ebbw Vale, Wales, where the industry was flourishing, taking their son Arthur, then 21. This Arthur Rooney married Catherine Regan, in Wales, and they had a son, two years after Dan Rooney was born, the family moved back to Canada and eventually ended up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1884. Along the way the family grew to nine children of which Dan was the second. Dan Rooney remained in the Pittsburgh area, and eventually opened a saloon in the Monongahela Valley coal town of Coulter, Pennsylvania. This is where Dan Rooney met and wed Margaret Maggie Murray, who was the daughter of a miner. Dan and Maggie would eventually settle their family in Pittsburghs North Side in 1913, Dan operated a cafe and saloon out of the first floor with the family living above. The building was located just a block from Exposition Park, which had been home to the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team until 1909. In 1925 he served as Wheelings player-manager and led the Middle Atlantic League in games, hits, runs, stolen bases and finished 2nd in batting average as his brother Dan Rooney finished 3rd in BA. Art also played halfback for the semi-pro Pittsburgh Hope Harvey and Majestic Radio clubs which he took over. Rooneys affiliation with the National Football League began in 1933 when he paid a $2,500 franchise fee to found a club based in the city of Pittsburgh. The league was able to take advantage of Pennsylvania relaxing their blue laws that prior to 1933 prohibited sporting events from taking place on Sundays. In 1936, Rooney won a parlay at Saratoga Race Course and he used the winnings to hire a coach, Joe Bach, give contracts to his players and almost win a championship. The winnings funded the team until 1941 when he sold the franchise to NY playboy Alex Thompson, Thompson wanted to move the franchise to Boston so he could be within a five-hour train ride of his club. At the same time, the Philadelphia Eagles ran into financial problems, Rooney used the funds from the sale of franchise to get a 70% interest in the Eagles, the other 30% held by Rooney friend and future NFL commissioner, Bert Bell. Bell and Rooney agreed to trade places with Thompson, Bell took the role of President of the Steelers that he relinquished to Rooney in 1946 when Bell became Commissioner

13.
Pittsburgh Steelers
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The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Steelers compete in the National Football League, as a club of the leagues American Football Conference North division. Founded in 1933, the Steelers are the oldest franchise in the AFC, Pittsburgh has won more Super Bowl titles and hosted more conference championship games than any other NFL team. The Steelers have won 8 AFC championships, tied with the Denver Broncos and they share the record for most conference championship games played in with the San Francisco 49ers. The Steelers share the record for second most Super Bowl appearances with the Broncos, and Dallas Cowboys, the Steelers lost their most recent championship appearance, Super Bowl XLV, on February 6,2011. The Steelers were founded as the Pittsburgh Pirates on July 8,1933, by Art Rooney, taking its name from the baseball team of the same name. The ownership of the Steelers has remained within the Rooney family since its founding, the current owner is Arts son, Dan Rooney, who has given much control of the franchise to his son Art Rooney II. The Steelers enjoy a large, widespread fanbase nicknamed Steeler Nation, the Steelers currently play their home games at Heinz Field on Pittsburghs North Side in the North Shore neighborhood, which also hosts the University of Pittsburgh Panthers. Built in 2001, the stadium replaced Three Rivers Stadium which hosted the Steelers for 31 seasons, prior to Three Rivers, the Steelers had played their games in Pitt Stadium and Forbes Field. The Pittsburgh Steelers of the NFL first took to the field as the Pittsburgh Pirates on September 20,1933, through the 1930s, the Pirates never finished higher than second place in their division, or with a record better than.500. Prior to the 1940 season, the Pirates renamed themselves the Steelers, during World War II, the Steelers experienced player shortages. They twice merged with other NFL franchises to field a team, during the 1943 season, they merged with the Philadelphia Eagles forming the Phil-Pitt Eagles and were known as the Steagles. In 1944, they merged with the Chicago Cardinals and were known as Card-Pitt and this team finished 0–10, marking the only winless team in franchise history. The Steelers made the playoffs for the first time in 1947 and this forced a tie-breaking playoff game at Forbes Field, which the Steelers lost 21–0. The Steelers also received a $3 million relocation fee, which was a windfall for them, the Steelers history of bad luck changed with the hiring of coach Chuck Noll for the 1969 season. The Pittsburgh Steelers 1974 draft was their best ever, no team has ever drafted four future Hall of Famers in one year. They also enjoyed a regular season streak of 49 consecutive wins against teams that would finish with a record that year. The Steelers suffered a rash of injuries in the 1980 season, the 1981 season was no better, with an 8–8 showing

14.
New York Giants
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The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League as a club of the leagues National Football Conference East division. The team plays its games at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The Giants hold their training camp at the Quest Diagnostics Training Center at the Meadowlands Sports Complex. The Giants were one of five teams that joined the NFL in 1925 and their championship tally is surpassed only by the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears. Throughout their history, the Giants have featured 28 Hall of Fame players, including NFL Most Valuable Player award winners Mel Hein, Frank Gifford, Y. A. Tittle, and Lawrence Taylor. The teams heated rivalry with the Philadelphia Eagles is the oldest of the NFC East rivalries, dating all the way back to 1933, the Giants played their first game as an away game against All New Britain in New Britain, Connecticut, on October 4,1925. They defeated New Britain 26–0 in front of a crowd of 10,000, the Giants were successful in their first season, finishing with an 8–4 record. In its third season, the finished with the best record in the league at 11–1–1 and was awarded the NFL title. In 1930, there were many who questioned the quality of the professional game. In December 1930, the Giants played a team of Notre Dame All Stars at the Polo Grounds to raise money for the unemployed of New York City and it was also an opportunity to establish the skill and prestige of the pro game. Knute Rockne reassembled his Four Horsemen along with the stars of his 1924 Championship squad and told them to score early, Rockne, like much of the public, thought little of pro football and expected an easy win. But from the beginning it was a one-way contest, with Friedman running for two Giant touchdowns and Hap Moran passing for another, when it was all over, Coach Rockne told his team, That was the greatest football machine I ever saw. I am glad none of you got hurt, the game raised $100,000 for the homeless, and is often credited with establishing the legitimacy of the professional game for those who were critical. It also was the last game the legendary Rockne ever coached, in a 14-year span from 1933 to 1947, the Giants qualified to play in the NFL championship game 8 times, winning twice. During this period the Giants were led by Hall of Fame coach Steve Owen, the period also featured the 1944 Giants, which are ranked as the #1 defensive team in NFL history. a truly awesome unit. They gave up only 7.5 points per game and shut out five of their 10 opponents, though they lost 14-7 to the Green Bay Packers in the 1944 NFL Championship Game. The famous Sneakers Game was played in this era where the Giants defeated the Chicago Bears on an icy field in the 1934 NFL Championship Game, the Giants played the Detroit Lions to a scoreless tie on November 7,1943

15.
Washington Redskins
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The Washington Redskins are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Redskins compete in the National Football League as a member of the National Football Conference East division. The Redskins have played more than 1,000 games since 1932, the Redskins have won five NFL Championships. The franchise has captured 14 NFL divisional titles and six NFL conference championships, the Redskins were the first team in the NFL with an official marching band, and also the first team to have a fight song, Hail to the Redskins. The team began play as the Boston Braves in 1932, based in Boston, before relocating to Washington, the Redskins won the 1937 and 1942 Championship games, as well as Super Bowls XVII, XXII, and XXVI. They also played in, and lost, the 1936,1940,1943 and they have made 24 postseason appearances, and have an overall postseason record of 23–18. All of the Redskins league titles were attained during two 10-year spans, from 1936 to 1945, the Redskins went to the NFL Championship six times, winning two of them. The second period lasted between 1982 and 1991 where the Redskins appeared in the seven times, captured four Conference titles. The Redskins have also experienced failure in their history, the most notable period of general failure was from 1946 to 1970, during which the Redskins posted only four winning seasons and did not have a single postseason appearance. During this period, the Redskins went without a winning season during the years 1956–1968. In 1961, the franchise posted their worst regular season record with a 1–12–1 showing, since 1992, the Redskins have only won the NFC East three times, made five postseason appearances, and had nine seasons with a winning record.85 billion. They also set the NFL record for attendance in 2007. The team name and logo have been the subject of controversy, with lawsuits being filed by Native American groups who consider the team name, polls conducted in the 2010s have shown a lack of major support among fans for a name change. The team originated as the Boston Braves, based in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1932, at the time the team played in Braves Field, home of the Boston Braves baseball team. The following year the club moved to Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox, to round out the change, Marshall hired William Lone Star Dietz, who was part Sioux, as the teams head coach. However, Boston wasnt much of a town at the time. The Redskins relocated to Washington, D. C. in 1937, in their early years in Washington, the Redskins shared Griffith Stadium with the Washington Senators baseball team. The Redskins played and won their first game in Washington, D. C. on September 16,1937, on December 5,1937, they earned their first division title in Washington against the Giants, 49–14, for the Eastern Championship

16.
George Preston Marshall
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Born in Grafton, West Virginia, Marshalls parents were Thomas Hildebrand Marshall and Blanche Preston Marshall. In 1932, he and three partners were awarded an NFL franchise for Boston. This team became known as the Boston Braves, as played on the same field as baseballs Boston Braves. Marshalls partners left the team one season, leaving him in control. There were four Native Americans on the original Redskins team in 1933, however, he claimed in an interview at the time that the name had no connection to the heritage of any player or coach. The 1936 team won the Eastern division and hosted the NFL championship game, days later, he announced he was moving the team to Washington, D. C. for the 1937 season. He was romantically tied to silent screen actress Louise Brooks throughout the 1920s and 1930s and he was married to film actress-author Corinne Griffith from 1936 to 1958. Although his team enjoyed success, Marshall is known more for many of the frills which now mark the modern football game. During the early days of the NFL, college football was more popular, Marshall decided to incorporate elements of the college atmosphere into the professional league. Innovations which he introduced include gala halftime shows, a band. The Redskins marching band is one of only two officially sanctioned by any NFL team. The fight song, Hail to the Redskins is one of the most famous in the NFL, Marshall, along with George Halas, suggested two major rules changes designed to open up the game and increase scoring which were subsequently adopted. One was to allow a pass to be thrown from anywhere behind the line of scrimmage. Another was the move of the posts from the end line to the goal line. Marshall did many things to try to endear the team to the people of Washington, during the 1937 season, Marshall rented a train and brought 10,000 fans to New York City to watch the team play the New York Giants. These actions paid off, and even today, Redskins fans are considered among the leagues most loyal, in the 1950s, Marshall was the first NFL owner to embrace the new medium of television. He initiated the first network appearances for any NFL team and built a television network to broadcast Redskins games across the South. Marshall was a very hands-on owner, for most of his tenure as the teams owner, he frequently micromanaged the team

17.
Joseph Carr
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Joseph Francis Carr was an American sports executive in American football, baseball, and basketball. He is best known as the president of the National Football League from 1921 until 1939 and he was also one of the founders and president of the American Basketball League from 1925 to 1927. A native and lifelong resident of Columbus, Ohio, Carr worked in his years as a machinist for the Panhandle Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad. While working for the Panhandle Division, he founded the Famous Panhandle White Sox baseball team in approximately 1900 and he also revived the Columbus Panhandles football team in 1907, manning the team with railroad employees. The Panhandles became one of the members of the American Professional Football Association. From 1921 until his death in 1939, Carr served as president of the NFL and he oversaw the growth of the league from is origins, principally in small or medium-sized cities in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois into a national league with teams in major cities. During his tenure, many of the NFLs premier franchises were established, including the New York Giants, Pittsburgh Steelers, Philadelphia Eagles, Detroit Lions, called the Father of Professional Football, Carr was one of the 17 inaugural inductees into Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1963. Carr was born Joseph Francis Karr on October 23,1879, at his parents home in the Irish neighborhood on the East End of Columbus and his father, Michael Karr, was a shoemaker who was born in Ireland in 1841 and immigrated to the United States in 1864. His mother Margaret Karr was born in New York to Irish immigrant parents, Carr had five older siblings, Bridget, James, John, Mary, and Michael, and a younger brother, Edward. In the late 1880s, Carrs father became a sewer contractor, at some point prior to the 1900 Census, the family changed its name to Carr. Carr was educated at St. Patrick School and later St. Dominics School, by 1899, Carr was working as a machinist for the Panhandle Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad. In approximately 1900, Carr was also hired as an assistant sports editor and sports writer for the Ohio State Journal and he wrote about all sports, but his boxing stories were especially popular. While working for the newspaper, he continued to work as a machinist for the railroad. In 1900, Carr organized a team made up of employees of the railroads Panhandle Division. The team, known as the Famous Panhandle White Sox, played in the Capital City League, according to the Chicago Tribune, Carrs Panhandle club gained a reputation in semi-professional ranks throughout the country. In 1907, Carr began an association with the sport of football. He obtained permission from the Panhandle Athletic Club to reorganize the Columbus Panhandles football team and he secured players from the railroad shop where he worked. The core of Carrs Panhandles teams were six Nesser brothers who worked at the shop and were excellent athletes

18.
Bert Bell
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De Benneville Bert Bell was the National Football League commissioner from 1945 until his death in 1959. He was posthumously inducted into the class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Bell played football at the University of Pennsylvania, where as quarterback, after being drafted into the US Army during World War I, he returned to complete his collegiate career at Penn and went on to become an assistant football coach with the Quakers in the 1920s. During the Great Depression, he was an assistant coach for the Temple Owls and he subsequently became sole proprietor of the Eagles, but the franchise suffered financially. Eventually, he sold the team and bought a share in the Pittsburgh Steelers, during World War II, Bell astutely argued against the league suspending operations until the wars conclusion. After the war, he was elected NFL commissioner and sold his ownership in the Steelers, amid criticism from franchise owners and under pressure from Congress, he unilaterally recognized the NFLPA and facilitated in the development of the first pension plan for the players. He survived to oversee the Greatest Game Ever Played and to envision what the league would become in the future, Bell was born de Benneville Bell, on February 25,1895, in Philadelphia to John C. Bell and Fleurette de Benneville Myers and his father was an attorney who served a term as the Pennsylvania Attorney General. His older brother, John C. Jr. was born in 1892, berts parents were very wealthy, and his mothers lineage predated the American Revolutionary War. His father, a Quaker of the University of Pennsylvania during the days of American football. Thereafter, Bell regularly engaged in games with childhood friends. In 1904, Bell matriculated at the Episcopal Academy, the Delancey School from 1909 to 1911, about this time, his father was installed as athletics director at Penn and helped form the National Collegiate Athletic Association. At Haverford, Bell captained the football, basketball, and baseball teams. Although he excelled at baseball, his devotion was to football and his father, who was named a trustee at Penn in 1911, said of Bells plans for college, Bert will go to Penn or he will go to hell. Bell entered Penn in the fall of 1914 as an English major, in a rare occurrence for a sophomore, he became the starting quarterback for Penns coach George H. Brooke. On the team, he also was as a defender, punter, after the teams 3–0 start, Bell temporarily shared possession of his quarterbacking duties until he subsequently reclaimed them later in the season, as Penn finished with a record of 3–5–2. Prior to Penns 1916 season, his mother died while he was en route to her bedside, nevertheless, he started the first game for the Quakers under new coach Bob Folwell, but mixed results left him platooned for the rest of the season. Penn finished with a record of 7–2–1, however, the Quakers secured an invitation to the 1917 Rose Bowl against the Oregon Ducks

19.
Philadelphia Eagles
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The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football franchise based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Eagles compete in the National Football League as a club of the leagues National Football Conference East division. The franchise was established in 1933 as a replacement for the bankrupt Frankford Yellow Jackets, when a group led by Bert Bell secured the rights to an NFL franchise in Philadelphia. Bell, Chuck Bednarik, Bob Brown, Reggie White, Steve Van Buren, Tommy McDonald, Greasy Neale, Pete Pihos, Sonny Jurgensen, the team has an intense rivalry with the New York Giants. This rivalry is the oldest in the NFC East and is among the oldest in the NFL and they also have a historic rivalry with the Washington Redskins, as well as their bitter rivalry with the Dallas Cowboys, which has become more high-profile in the last three decades. The team consistently ranks in the top three in attendance and has sold out every game since the 1999 season, in a Sports Illustrated poll of 321 NFL players, Eagles fans were selected the most intimidating fans in the NFL. Midway through the 1931 season, the Frankford Yellow Jackets went bankrupt, the Bell-Wray group had to pay an entry fee of $3,500 and assumed a total debt of $11,000 that was owed to three other NFL franchises. Neither the Eagles nor the NFL officially regard the two franchises as the same, citing the period of dormancy. Furthermore, almost no Yellow Jackets players were on the Eagles first roster, the Eagles, along with the Pittsburgh Steelers and the now-defunct Cincinnati Reds, joined the NFL as expansion teams. To accommodate football at Shibe Park during the winter, management set up stands in right field, some 20 feet high, these east stands had 22 rows of seats. The goalposts stood along the first base line and in left field, the uncovered east stands enlarged capacity of Shibe Park to over 39,000, but the Eagles rarely drew more than 25 to 30,000. The Eagles struggled over the course of their first decade, enduring repeated losing seasons, soon after, Bell and Rooney traded the Eagles franchise to Thompson and moved it to Pittsburgh, while Thompson moved the Steelers franchise to Philadelphia. By the late 1940s, head coach Earle Greasy Neale and running back Steve Van Buren led the team to three consecutive NFL Championship Games, winning two of them in 1948 and 1949. After the 1957 season, the Eagles moved from Connie Mack Stadium to Franklin Field at the University of Pennsylvania, Franklin Field would seat over 60,000 for the Eagles, whereas Connie Mack had a capacity of 39,000. The stadium switched from grass to AstroTurf in 1969 and it was the first NFL stadium to use artificial turf. In 1960, the Eagles won their third NFL championship, under the leadership of future Pro Football Hall of Famers Norm Van Brocklin and Chuck Bednarik, the head coach was Buck Shaw. The 1960 Eagles, by a score of 17–13, became the team to defeat Vince Lombardi. The Eagles had a good 1961 season and then fell on hard times in 1962

20.
Chicago Bears
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The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago, Illinois. The Bears compete in the National Football League as a club of the leagues National Football Conference North division. The Bears have won nine NFL Championships and one Super Bowl and hold the NFL record for the most enshrinees in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the Bears have also recorded more victories than any other NFL franchise. The franchise was founded in Decatur, Illinois, in 1919 and it is one of only two remaining franchises from the NFLs founding. The team played games at Wrigley Field on Chicagos North Side through the 1970 season, they now play at Soldier Field on the Near South Side. The Bears have a rivalry with the Green Bay Packers. The team headquarters, Halas Hall, is in the Chicago suburb of Lake Forest, the Bears practice at adjoining facilities there during the season. They hold their training camp from late July to mid-August at Ward Field on the campus of Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, Illinois. Originally named the Decatur Staleys, the club was established by the A. E. Staley food starch company of Decatur and this was the typical start for several early professional football franchises. The company hired George Halas and Edward Dutch Sternaman in 1920 to run the team, the 1920 Decatur Staleys season was their inaugural regular season completed in the newly formed American Professional Football Association. Full control of the team was turned over to Halas and Sternaman in 1921, official team and league records cite Halas as the founder as he took over the team in 1920 when it became a charter member of the NFL. The team relocated to Chicago in 1921, where the club was renamed the Chicago Staleys, under an agreement reached by Halas and Sternaman with Staley, Halas purchased the rights to the club from Staley for US$100. In 1922, Halas changed the name from the Staleys to the Bears. The team moved into Wrigley Field, which was home to the Chicago Cubs baseball franchise, as with several early NFL franchises, the Bears derived their nickname from their citys baseball team. Halas liked the bright colors of his alma mater, the University of Illinois. The Staleys/Bears dominated the league in the early years and their rivalry with the Chicago Cardinals, the oldest in the NFL, was key in four out of the first six league titles. During that span, the Bears posted 34 shutouts, the Bears rivalry with the Green Bay Packers is one of the oldest and most storied in American professional sports, dating back to 1921. The franchise was a success under Halas, capturing the NFL Championship in 1921

21.
Green Bay Packers
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The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League as a club of the leagues National Football Conference North division. They are also the third-oldest franchise in the NFL, organized and it is the only non-profit, community-owned major league professional sports team based in the United States. Home games are played at Lambeau Field, the Packers are the last vestige of small town teams common in the NFL during the 1920s and 1930s. Founded in 1919 by Earl Curly Lambeau and George Whitney Calhoun, between 1919 and 1920, the Packers competed against other semi-pro clubs from around Wisconsin and the Midwest. They joined the American Professional Football Association, the forerunner of todays NFL, the Packers have won 13 league championships, the most in NFL history, with nine NFL titles before the Super Bowl era and four Super Bowl victories. They won the first two Super Bowls in 1967 and 1968 and were the only NFL team to defeat the American Football League prior to the AFL–NFL merger. The Vince Lombardi Trophy is named after the Packers head coach of the same name and their two further Super Bowl wins came in 1997 and 2011. The Packers are long-standing adversaries of the Chicago Bears, Minnesota Vikings, and Detroit Lions, the Bears–Packers rivalry is one of the oldest in NFL history, dating back to 1921. The Green Bay Packers were founded on August 11,1919 by former high-school football rivals Earl Curly Lambeau, Lambeau solicited funds for uniforms from his employer, the Indian Packing Company. He was given $500 for uniforms and equipment, on the condition that the team be named for its sponsor, the Green Bay Packers have played in their original city longer than any other team in the NFL. On August 27,1921, the Packers were granted a franchise in the new pro football league that had been formed the previous year. Financial troubles plagued the team and the franchise was forfeited within the year, before Lambeau found new financial backers and these backers, known as the Hungry Five, formed the Green Bay Football Corporation. After a near-miss in 1927, Lambeaus squad claimed the Packers first NFL title in 1929 with an undefeated 12–0–1 campaign, among the many impressive accomplishments of these years was the Packers streak of 29 consecutive home games without defeat, an NFL record which still stands. The arrival of end Don Hutson from Alabama in 1935 gave Lambeau, credited with inventing pass patterns, Hutson would lead the league in receptions eight seasons and spur the Packers to NFL championships in 1936,1939 and 1944. An iron man, Hutson played both ways, leading the league in interceptions as a safety in 1940, Hutson claimed 18 NFL records when he retired in 1945, many of which still stand. In 1951, his number 14 was the first to be retired by the Packers, after Hutsons retirement, Lambeau could not stop the Packers slide. He purchased a large lodge near Green Bay for team members, rockwood Lodge was the home of the 1946-1949 Packers, though the 1947 and 1948 seasons produced a record of 12-10-1, and 1949 was even worse at 3-9

22.
Ritz-Carlton Philadelphia
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The Ritz-Carlton Philadelphia is a luxury hotel and residential complex in Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Girard Trust Bank – also known as Girard Trust Corn Exchange Bank Building – was built as the headquarters and main branch of the Girard Bank, the Beaux Arts building was inspired by the Pantheon in Rome, and was conceived by architect Frank Furness. The commission was shared between the Philadelphia firm of Furness, Evans & Company and the New York firm of McKim, the building was begun in 1905 and completed in 1907. While its masonry dome is hemispherical on the exterior, the interior is octagonal, the soaring, 4-story Main Banking Room is used as the hotels restaurant and ballroom. Girard Trust Building – also known as Girard Trust Company Office Building – is a 394 feet 30-story skyscraper facing City Hall and it was designed by McKim, Mead & White, and built as an office building in 1930-31. It was later renamed Two Mellon Plaza, the adjacent One Meridian Plaza was connected to this building. Shortly after One Meridian Plazas demolition, the building was converted in 2000 into a 330-room Ritz-Carlton hotel, responsible for the buildings conversion are James Garrison and Dr. George C. The building is located on the formerly occupied by the West End Trust Building by Furness. On the former site of One Meridian Plaza stands The Residences at the Ritz Carlton, the Ritz-Carlton at emporis. com Girard Trust Corn Exchange Bank at Philadelphia Architects and Buildings The Girard Trust Company Building at Philadelphia Architects and Buildings

23.
Jay Berwanger
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John Jacob Jay Berwanger was an American college football player and referee. He was the first winner of the Downtown Athletic Club Trophy in 1935, Berwanger was a star halfback for the Chicago Maroons football team of the University of Chicago, where he was known as the one man football team. In 1936, Berwanger became the first player drafted into the National Football League in its inaugural 1936 NFL Draft, though he did not play professionally. In a 1934 game against the Michigan Wolverines, Berwanger left his mark on Michigan center Gerald Ford in the form of a distinctive scar beneath the future U. S. Presidents left eye. In 1935, Berwanger became the first recipient of the Downtown Athletic Club Trophy and he received 84 votes, finishing ahead of Armys Monk Meyer, Notre Dames William Shakespeare, and Princetons Pepper Constable. He was also awarded the Chicago Tribune Silver Football as the most valuable player in the Big Ten Conference, Berwanger also competed in track and field for Chicago, setting a school decathlon record in 1936 that stood until 2007. In 1936, Berwanger was the first player drafted into the National Football League in its inaugural 1936 NFL draft, the Philadelphia Eagles selected him, but did not think they would be able to meet his reported salary demands of $1,000 per game. They traded his rights to the Chicago Bears for tackle Art Buss. Berwanger initially chose not to sign with the Bears in part to preserve his status so that he could compete for a spot on the U. S. team for the 1936 Summer Olympics in the decathlon. After he missed the Olympics cut, Berwanger and Bears owner George Halas were unable to reach an agreement on salary, Berwanger was requesting $15,000, instead, he took a job with a Chicago rubber company and also became a part-time coach at the University of Chicago. Berwanger later expressed regret that he did not accept Halas offer, after graduating, Berwanger worked briefly as a sportswriter and later became a manufacturer of plastic car parts. He was very modest about the Heisman Trophy, unsure what to do with the trophy, he left it with his aunt Gussie, the trophy was later bequeathed to the University of Chicago Athletic Hall of Fame, where it is on display. There is also a replica of the Heisman on display in the case in the Nora Gymnasium at Dubuque Senior High School. He is a member of both the Iowa Sports Hall of Fame and Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame, Berwanger died after a lengthy battle with lung cancer at his home in Oak Brook, Illinois, on June 26,2002, at the age of 88. Jay Berwanger at the College Football Hall of Fame Jay Berwanger at the Heisman Trophy official website Jay Berwanger at Find a Grave

24.
George Halas
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George Stanley Halas Sr. nicknamed Papa Bear and Mr. Everything, was a player, coach, and owner involved with professional American football. He was the founder and owner of the National Football Leagues Chicago Bears and he was also lesser known as an inventor, jurist, radio producer, philanthropist, philatelist, and Major League Baseball player. He was one of the co-founders of the National Football League in 1920, Halas was born in Chicago, Illinois, into a family of Czech-Bohemian immigrants. His parents were migrants from Pilsen, Austria-Hungary, George had a varied career in sports. In 1915, Halas worked temporarily for Western Electric, and was planning on being on the SS Eastland and he was running late, however, as he was attempting to gain weight to play Big Ten football and missed the capsizing. He also became a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity and he helped Illinois win the 1918 Big Ten Conference football title. Serving as an ensign in the Navy during World War I, he played for a team at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station, and was named the MVP of the 1919 Rose Bowl. Afterward, Halas played minor league baseball, eventually earning a promotion to the New York Yankees, however, a hip injury effectively ended his baseball career. The popular myth was that Halas was succeeded as the Yankees right fielder by Babe Ruth, later that year, Halas played for the Hammond Pros and received about $75 per game. After one year with the Pros, Halas moved to Decatur, Illinois to take a position with the A. E. Staley Company, a starch manufacturer. He served as a sales representative, an outfielder on the company-sponsored baseball team. Halas selected his alma maters colors—orange and navy blue—for the teams uniforms, in 1920, Halas represented the Staleys at the meeting which formed the American Professional Football Association in Canton, Ohio. After suffering financial losses despite a 10–1–2 record, company founder, Halas moved the team to Chicago and took on teammate Dutch Sternaman as a partner. Halas was given a $5,000 bonus for the move to Chicago provided that he keep the Staleys franchise name for the 1921 season, the newly minted Chicago Staleys maneuvered their schedule to win the NFL championship that year. They took the name Bears in 1922 as a tribute to baseballs Chicago Cubs, Halas was not only the teams coach, but also played end and handled ticket sales and the business of running the club. However, severe financial difficulties brought on by the Great Depression put the Bears in dire financial straits even though Jones led them to the NFL title in 1932, Halas returned as coach in 1933 to eliminate the additional cost of paying a head coachs salary. He coached the Bears for another ten seasons and his 1934 team was undefeated until a loss in the championship game to the New York Giants. Every other team in the league immediately began trying to imitate the format, the Bears repeated as NFL champions in 1941, and the 1940s would be remembered as the era of the Monsters of the Midway

25.
Wellington Mara
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Wellington Timothy Mara was the co-owner of the New York Giants of the National Football League from 1959 until his death, and one of the most influential and iconic figures in the history of the NFL. He was the son of Tim Mara, who founded the Giants in 1925. Wellington was a boy for that year. Mara was born in Rochester, New York, the son of Elizabeth Lizette, a homemaker, Mara was an alumnus of Loyola School and Fordham University, both New York City Jesuit schools. In 1930, Timothy James Mara split his ownership interests between Wellington and his older brother Jack, soon after graduating from Fordham University, Wellington moved into the Giants front office as team treasurer and assistant to his father. He became the secretary in 1940. After fighting in World War II, he returned to the Giants as team vice president, when Jack, who had been president since 1941, died in 1965, Wellington became team president. For his first 37 years in the organization, he handled the franchises football decisions, however, his growing involvement in league affairs led him to turn over most of his day-to-day responsibilities to operations director Andy Robustelli in 1974. He didnt relinquish full control over the side of the operation until 1979. The Giants were hamstrung for several years by a relationship between Wellington and his nephew, Tim J. Mara, who inherited Jacks stake in the team upon Jacks death. By the 1970s, they almost never spoke to other. The Maras continued to close control over the Giants day-to-day operations long after most other owners had delegated such authority. Under Maras direction the New York Football Giants won six NFL titles, nine conference championships, the Giants have also accumulated the third highest number of victories in National Football League history. Mara was also liked by the Giants players, and was known to stick by them even when they struggled with off-the-field problems. Taylor has since lived a life style and credits Mara with helping him fight his addiction. The Wilson football used in NFL games prior to the AFL merger was nicknamed THE DUKE after Mara, for the 2006 season and beyond, a new version of THE DUKE has been used in NFL games. He was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1997, Mara was married to Ann Mara. His granddaughters include actresses Kate Mara and Rooney Mara, in 2012, Mara was elected into the New Jersey Hall of Fame

26.
Tuffy Leemans
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Alphonse Emil Tuffy Leemans was an American football player. He played professionally in the National Football League with the New York Giants from 1936 to 1943, Leemans was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1978. The New York Giants first learned of Leemans after a high school boy reported to his father what he had witnessed during a game between George Washington University and Alabama. What he saw was a performance by Leemans who from 1933 to 1935 starred for George Washington. The high school boy was Wellington Mara, son of the Giants owner Tim Mara, thanks to young Mara, Leemans became the No.2 draft pick of the Giants in the National Football Leagues first-ever college draft in 1936. Leemans was named the player in the 1936 college all-star game. Upon joining the Giants, Leemans immediately took over as one of the NFLs most dependable workhorses, the 6-0, 195-pound fullback led the league in rushing as a rookie with 830 yards. He was the only named to the annual all-league team. At the last regular game in 1941 the Giants wanted to honor Leemans for his contributions to the team. On December 7 they celebrated Tuffy Leemans Day, presenting him with a tray, a watch. During the course of the game the stadium announcer had paged Col, during his outstanding eight-year career, he was named first-or second team all-league every year from 1936 to 1942, by either or both the NFL and a major wire service. A versatile player, at one time or another played fullback or halfback, Leemans scored a touchdown on a 6-yard run in the games first quarter. Leemans finished his career in 1943 with 3,132 yards rushing,28 receptions for 422 yards. He scored 17 touchdowns rushing, three on receptions, and passed for 25 more and his career ledger also includes punt return and pass interception statistics. His marks become more significant when it is remembered that the Giants of that era employed a system that saw 2 separate units divide playing time both offensively and defensively. He retired to Maryland where he operated a bowling alley. He died on January 19,1979, and was interred at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Silver Spring, Tuffy Leemans at the Pro Football Hall of Fame Tuffy Leemans at Find a Grave

27.
Tim Mara
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Timothy James Tim Mara was the founder and administrator of the New York Giants of the National Football League. The Giants, under Mara, won NFL championships in 1927,1934,1938, and 1956 and divisional titles in 1933,1935,1939,1941,1944,1946, and 1958. Mara, the son of Elizabeth and John Mara, a policeman, at the age of 13, he quit school in order to find work to support his mother. His first job was as an usher in a theater and he then worked as a newsboy selling newspapers on the streets. This job brought him contact with many of New York’s bookmakers. He soon became a runner for the bookies, earning five percent of the bets he collected, by age 18, he was an established bookmaker himself. In 1925, the NFL was in need of a franchise in a city market that could be used to showcase the league. The NFLs President, Joseph Carr, traveled to New York to offer boxing promoter Billy Gibson a franchise, Gibson, the former owner of the NFLs last New York franchise, the New York Brickley Giants, refused the offer. However he referred Carr to his friend Tim Mara, while Mara did not know much about football, Maras friend, Dr. Harry March, did. This backing led Mara to purchase the NFL franchise for New York at a cost of $500, $500 then is worth about $12,458.00 in 2013. Mara and March, even signed Jim Thorpe to play several games in order to boost attendance. However many of the New York sports fans still took to college football, during the Giants first season, attendance was so poor that Mara lost over $40,000. To tap into New Yorks college football fans, Mara tried to sign ex-college football superstar Red Grange only to find that he already was a member of the Chicago Bears. However still looking for a way to cash in on Granges popularity, the gate receipts totalled $143,000 for that one game against Grange and the Bears, and Mara recovered all of his losses for the 1925 season. In 1926, Grange and his manager, C. C, Pyle, formed the first American Football League with a New York franchise named the Yankees to compete with the Giants. New Yorks coach Bob Folwell and star tackle, Century Milstead and this led Mara to increase the salaries of all his players by $50 a game to prevent them from leaving the Giants, too. He also signed many players to full-season contracts, Mara suffered $60,000 in financial losses that season. However all but four of the AFL franchises finished the 1926 season, Mara then challenged the AFL champion Philadelphia Quakers to a game and they accepted

28.
Ken Strong
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Elmer Kenneth Strong Jr. was an American football player, a member of both the College Football Hall of Fame and Pro Football Hall of Fame. Strong was raised in Connecticut and began his career at West Haven High School. He played college football as a prominent halfback for the NYU Violets, a multi-year All-American, he had one of the greatest seasons for any back in 1928, with some 3,000 total yards from scrimmage. Grantland Rice named Strong to his all-time backfield, after his career at NYU, he went on to play professional football. With a 14-year career he played from 1929–1937,1939, 1944–1947 and he played for the Staten Island Stapletons and New York Giants, both of the National Football League, and the New York Yankees of the second American Football League. He is the first known player in NFL history to attempt, the kick was made at the Polo Grounds on November 26,1933, in a win against the visiting Green Bay Packers. The 30-yard kick was also the shortest of the five successful fair catch kicks in NFL history, Strong is also believed to be the second player to have devoted an entire season to placekicking, his 1939 season with the Giants had him playing very little outside of kicks. He had a history of problems and died of an apparent heart attack in 1979 at age 73. com • Pro-Football-Reference • Databasefootball. com Ken Strong at Find a Grave

29.
Byron White
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Byron Raymond Whizzer White won fame both as an American football halfback and as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Born and raised in Colorado, White played in the National Football League for three seasons and practiced law for 15 years before his Supreme Court appointment, White was the Colorado state chair of John F. Kennedys 1960 presidential campaign. White was appointed to the Supreme Court by Kennedy in 1962 and he viewed his own court decisions as based on the facts of each case rather than as representative of a specific legal philosophy. He retired in 1993 and is the twelfth longest-serving justice in Supreme Court history and he was the first Supreme Court Justice from the state of Colorado. Born in Fort Collins, Colorado, White was the son of Maude Elizabeth and Alpha Albert White. He was raised in the town of Wellington, where he obtained his high school diploma in 1934. He joined the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity and served as student body president his senior year. Graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1938, he won a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford in England, after deferring it for a year to play pro football, he attended Hertford College, Oxford. During this time in England, he acquainted with Joe and John Kennedy. As a senior, White led Colorado to an undefeated 8–0 regular season in 1937 and he was the runner-up for the Heisman Trophy, behind Yale quarterback Clint Frank, and also played basketball and baseball at CU. The basketball team advanced to the finals of the inaugural National Invitation Tournament at Madison Square Garden in March 1938, White had originally planned to attend Oxford in 1938 and not play pro football. He was selected fourth overall in the 1938 NFL draft, held in December 1937, by the NFLs Pittsburgh Pirates, Oxford allowed White to delay his start to early 1939, so he accepted the Pittsburgh offer in August and played the 1938 season in the NFL. He led the league in rushing as a 21-year-old rookie and was its highest-paid player and he sailed to England in early 1939, with the intent of staying for three years. With the outbreak of World War II in late summer, White returned to the United States and he was admitted to Yale Law School in early October 1939, a week after classes began, and also played for the Detroit Lions in 1940 and 1941. In three NFL seasons, he played in 33 games and he led the league in rushing yards in 1938 and 1940, and he was one of the first big money NFL players, making US$15,000 per year. His NFL career was cut short when he entered the U. S. Navy in 1942, after the war and he was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1954. During the war, White served as an officer in the U. S. Navy. He had originally wanted to join the Marines, but was out due to being colorblind

30.
Rhodes Scholarship
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The Rhodes Scholarship, named for the British mining magnate and South African politician Cecil John Rhodes, is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford. It is widely considered to be one of the worlds most prestigious scholarships, established in 1902, it was the first large-scale programme of international scholarships, inspiring the creation of a great many other awards in other countries. With the scholarships, he aimed at making Oxford University the educational centre of the English-speaking race, since its creation, controversy has surrounded both its former exclusion of women, and Rhodes Anglo-supremacist beliefs and legacy of colonialism. As of 2016, there have been 7,776 scholars since the programmes inception, more than 4,700 are still living. The Rhodes Scholarships are administered and awarded by the Rhodes Trust, which was established in 1902 under the terms and conditions of the will of Cecil John Rhodes, Rhodes motivation in establishing the scholarship is reflected in his will. Stead noted that it him to the world as the first distinguished British statesman whose Imperialism was that of Race, with the scholarships, he aimed at making Oxford University the educational centre of the English-speaking race. With this motivation in mind, the legacy originally provided for scholarships for the British colonies and these three were chosen because it was thought that a good understanding between England, Germany and the United States of America will secure the peace of the world. In 1925, the Commonwealth Fund Fellowships were established to reciprocate the Rhodes Scholarships by enabling British graduates to study in the United States and it also cooperates with universities in China, BLCC for example. BLCC offers high-level scholarships for students who aim to study Chinese in Beijing. In 1953, the Parliament of the United Kingdom created the Marshall Scholarship as an alternative to the Rhodes Scholarship that would serve as a living gift to the United States. For at least its first 75 years, Rhodes Scholars usually studied for a second Bachelor of Arts degree, while that remains an option, more recent scholars usually study for an advanced degree. In recognition of the centenary of the foundation of the Rhodes Trust in 2003 and these were John Brademas, Bob Hawke, Rex Nettleford and David R. Woods. During the centenary celebrations, the foundation of the Mandela Rhodes Foundation was also marked, Cecil Rhodes wished current scholars and Rhodes alumni to have opportunities of meeting and discussing their experiences and prospects. Each countrys scholarship varies in its selectivity, in the United States, in 2014, there were 857 university-endorsed applicants for the Americans Rhodes scholarship, of whom 3. 7% were ultimately elected. In Canada between 1997-2002, there were an average of 234 university-endorsed applicants annually for 11 scholarships, for a rate of 4. 7%. An early change was the elimination of the scholarships for Germany during the First, no German scholars were chosen from 1914 to 1929, nor from 1940 to 1969. Rhodess bequest was whittled down considerably in the first decades after his death, a change occurred in 1929, when an Act of Parliament established a fund separate from the original proceeds of Rhodess will and made it possible to expand the number of scholarships. Between 1993 and 1995, scholarships were extended to countries in the European Community

31.
Kenny Washington (American football)
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Kenneth S. Washington was a professional football player who was the first African-American to sign a contract with a National Football League team in the modern era. Washington was a running back at Abraham Lincoln High School in Los Angeles. UCLA, Washington rushed for 1,914 yards in his college career and he was one of four African American players on the 1939 UCLA Bruins football team, the others being Woody Strode, Jackie Robinson and Ray Bartlett. Washington, Strode, and Robinson starred on the 1939 UCLA Bruins football team and this was a rarity to have so many African Americans when only a few dozen at all played on college football teams. They played eventual conference and national champion USC to a 0-0 tie with the 1940 Rose Bowl on the line and it was the first UCLA-USC rivalry football game with national implications. UCLA teammates have commented how strong Washington was when confronted with racial slurs, Washington led the nation in total offense and became the first consensus All-American in the history of the schools football program in 1939. However, he was named to second team All-America selection instead of the first and was omitted from the East-West Shrine Game that year and these slights were the source of much outrage among West Coast media outlets which blamed them on racial discrimination. According to Time magazines coverage of the 1940 College All-Star Game, after graduation, George Halas attempted to sign Washington to the Chicago Bears, but was blocked by other NFL owners. Instead, Washington played for the Hollywood Bears of the Pacific Coast Professional Football League from 1941 to 1945, as a result, the team signed Washington on March 21,1946, followed by fellow African-American UCLA and Hollywood Bears teammate Woody Strode on May 7. Prior to his first NFL season Washington underwent surgery in both knees, having torn cartilage removed from his knee and what was characterized in the press as a growth from his right. The April surgery was successful and Washington was able to recover in time for the July start of the Rams training camp, Washington appeared in a number of Hollywood films, including Rope of Sand, Pinky, and The Jackie Robinson Story. Washington was a staunch Republican and strongly supported Richard Nixons 1950 U. S. Senate campaign, after retirement from football, Washington became a police officer for the Los Angeles Police Department. For his contribution to sports in Los Angeles, he was honored with a Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Court of Honor plaque by the Coliseum commissioners. He was inducted to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1956, Washington died of polyarteritis nodosa on June 24,1971, at the age of 52. List of NCAA major college football yearly total offense leaders 1940 Yearbook Photo Kenny Washington at the Internet Movie Database

32.
Bill Dudley
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William McGarvey Bullet Bill Dudley was a professional American football player in the National Football League for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Detroit Lions, and Washington Redskins. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1966, Dudley was born in Bluefield, Virginia and attended Graham High School. He made the team his junior year, and in 1938 he kicked a 35-yard field goal in the seasons finale and helped Graham beat favored Princeton High School. At the age of 16, Dudley was awarded a scholarship by the University of Virginia football team by coach Frank Murray. As a result, he received a grant, out of which he paid for room, board. He also pledged and became a brother of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, although he was originally slated as a punter and placekicker, Dudley eventually came to play the halfback position. In his sophomore year, he began as the back on the depth chart but, due to a teammates injury. By his third year, Dudley started every game and was the Southern Conferences leader in offensive yards. He was also successful in his year, particularly during a game against the University of North Carolina. In that game, Dudley scored all three touchdowns for Virginia and kicked four extra points and that season, he became the first Virginia player to earn All-America honors and was awarded the Maxwell Award for best college football player of the year. He was also named the best college player of the year by the Washington D. C. Dudley also led the nation in four categories, touchdowns with 18, points scored with 134, rushing average with 6.2 yards a play, and touchdowns responsible for with 29. After the season, he played in the East–West Shrine Game and he also played in the College All-Star Game in Chicago. Dudley was drafted in the 1942 NFL Draft with the first overall pick by the Pittsburgh Steelers, during the 1942 season, he led the league in rushing with 696 yards on 162 carries and was then named to the All-Pro team. He also completed 35 of 94 passes for 438 yards and two touchdowns, punted 18 times for a 32.0 average, returned 20 punts for 271 yards, and ran back 11 kickoffs for 298 yards, scoring once. In the first game of his career, Dudley ran for a 55-yard touchdown. In 1942, the U. S. armed services began drafting all eligible men to fight in World War II. Dudley originally enlisted and was sworn into the Naval Air Corps, however found out he needed to have his parents consent

33.
Pro Football Hall of Fame
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The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame for professional American football. As of 2017, there are a total of 310 members of the Hall of Fame, groundbreaking for the building was held on August 11,1962. The original building contained just two rooms, and 19,000 square feet of interior space, in April 1970, ground was broken for the first of many expansions. This first expansion cost $620,000, and was completed in May 1971, the size was increased to 34,000 square feet by adding another room. The pro shop opened with this expansion and this was also an important milestone for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, as yearly attendance passed the 200,000 mark for the first time. In November 1977, work began on another project, costing US$1,200,000. It was completed in November 1978, enlarging the shop and research library. The total size of the hall was now 50,500 square feet, the building remained largely unchanged until July 1993. The Hall then announced yet another expansion, costing US$9,200,000 and this expansion was completed in October 1995. The buildings size was increased to 82,307 square feet, the most notable addition was the GameDay Stadium, which shows an NFL Films production on a 20-foot by 42-foot Cinemascope screen. Through 2017, all inductees except one, played part of their professional career in the NFL. For CFL stars, there is a parallel Canadian Football Hall of Fame, only one player, the Chicago Bears have the most Hall of Famers among the leagues franchises with 32 enshrinees. Enshrinees are selected by a 46-person committee, largely made up of media members, each city that has a current NFL team sends one representative from the local media to the committee. A city with more than one franchise sends a representative for each franchise, there are also 13 at-large delegates, and one representative from the Pro Football Writers Association. Except for the PFWA representative, who is appointed to a term, all other appointments are open-ended and terminated only by death, incapacitation, retirement. To be eligible for the process, a player or coach must have been retired for at least five years. Any other contributor such as an owner or executive can be voted in at any time. Fans may nominate any player, coach or contributor by simply writing to the Pro Football Hall of Fame via letter or email

34.
Dan Reeves (American football executive)
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This article is about the owner of the National Football Leagues Rams franchise. For the NFL player and coach, see Dan Reeves, for other people named Dan Reeves, see Dan Reeves. Daniel Farrell Reeves was an American sports entrepreneur, best known as the owner of the National Football Leagues Rams franchise from 1941 to his death in 1971. Reeves is remembered for his move of the Rams from Cleveland to Los Angeles 71 years ago in 1946. Reeves was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1967, Reeves was a graduate of the Newman School in Lakewood, New Jersey, and attended Georgetown University in Washington, D. C. which he left before acquiring his degree. While attending Georgetown, Reeves met his wife, Mary V. Corroon. The couple were married on October 25,1935 and would together have six children, the Reeves familys grocery chain was sold to Safeway Stores in 1941, generating capital and freeing the youthful Dan Reeves, age 29, to pursue his dream of owning a professional football franchise. Together with his friend and business partner Robert Levy, Reeves purchased the Cleveland Rams franchise in 1941 from a local group for $135,000. The team did not operate in 1943, and Reeves became the owner in December. On January 23, the Coliseum Commission approved use of the 103, the move did not immediately cure the teams financial woes, however, and in 1947, Reeves found himself in need of co-owners to share the mounting losses while attempting a turnaround. Reeves brought Levy back in for a stake in the team. Another third went to Harold Pauley and Hal Saley, boasting some of footballs most glamorous stars, the Rams drew extremely well at the ticket office. The previous closeness between Reeves and Levy fell away, though, and soon Levy was siding with Pauley against Reeves on most significant ownership decisions. Pauley eventually assumed Levys stake, giving Pauley two-thirds ownership of the team, finally in 1962, the NFL stepped in to resolve the situation by holding a closed auction to result in one partner buying out the other. Reeves outbid Pauley for the team, valuing the Rams at $7.1 million against Pauleys bid of $6.1 million, Reeves once again assumed sole ownership. He then raised the funds to support his bid by immediately selling 49% of the team to a group of minority owners that included Gene Autry, by the time of Reeves death in 1971, the teams worth was estimated at $20 million. The innovative Reeves made several other significant contributions to pro football and he instituted the famed Free Football for Kids program that enabled youngsters to enjoy the game in their formative years and then, hopefully, become ardent fans as adults. His signing of the great, Kenny Washington, in the spring of 1946 marked the first time a black player had been hired in the NFL since 1933

35.
Los Angeles Rams
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The Los Angeles Rams are a professional American football team that play in the National Football League. The Rams franchise was founded in 1936 as the Cleveland Rams in the short-lived second American Football League before joining the NFL the next year, in 1946, the franchise moved to Los Angeles. The Rams franchise remained in the area until 1994, when they moved to St. Louis. The Rams franchise returned to Los Angeles in 2016, Reeves threatened to end his relationship with the NFL and get out of the professional football business altogether unless the Rams transfer to Los Angeles was permitted. A settlement was reached and, as a result, Reeves was allowed to move his team to Los Angeles, consequently, the NFL became the first professional coast-to-coast sports entertainment industry. From 1933, when Joe Lillard left the Chicago Cardinals, through 1946, after the Rams had received approval to move to Los Angeles, the Rams entered into negotiations to lease the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The Rams were advised that a precondition to them getting a lease was that they would have to integrate the team with at least one African-American, subsequently, the Rams signed Kenny Washington on March 21,1946. The signing of Washington caused all hell to break loose among the owners of the NFL franchises, the Rams added a second black player, Woody Strode, on May 7,1946, giving them two black players going into the 1946 season. The Rams were the first team in the NFL to play in Los Angeles, the upstart All-America Football Conference had the Los Angeles Dons compete there as well. Reeves was taking a gamble that Los Angeles was ready for its own football team –. Reeves was proved to be correct when the Rams played their first pre-season game against the Washington Redskins in front of a crowd of 95,000 fans, the team finished their first season in L. A. with a 6–4–1 record, second place behind the Chicago Bears. At the end of the season Walsh was fired as head coach, the Coliseum would be the home of the Rams for more than 30 years, but the facility was already over 20 years old on the day of the first kickoff. In 1948, halfback Fred Gehrke painted horns on the Rams helmets, Kelley had an early evening talk show on L. A. radio station KMPC, that was considered by most sports enthusiasts as highly entertaining. Kelley was generally considered a Legend and a professional, one of the great radio. At the beginning of the 1951 World Championship game after the kickoff, Kelley was able to cite every player on the prior to the first snap from scrimmage. The Rams first heyday in Southern California was from 1949 to 1955, during this period, they had the best offense in the NFL, even though there was a quarterback change from Bob Waterfield to Norm Van Brocklin in 1951. The defining Offensive players of this period were wide receiver Elroy Hirsch, Van Brocklin, teamed with fellow Hall of Famer Tom Fears, Hirsch helped create the style of Rams football as one of the first big play receivers. During the 1951 Championship season, Hirsch posted a then stunning 1,495 receiving yards with 17 touchdowns, the popularity of this wide-open offense enabled the Los Angeles Rams to become the first pro football team to have all their games televised in 1950